Loyalty Programs for Social Entrepreneurship

Support a good cause and increase sales in the process

Introduction

The following article deals with the sensible combination of a classic loyalty program with fundraisers.

It is not only interesting for experienced entrepreneurs, but also for marketing experts, advertising agencies and everyone who wants to support their city or community with social entrepreneurship.

You may be aware of the advantages of a good loyalty program, but if not you can find everything important in our last article: Loyalty Programs for Retailers

As promised: More Sales while Doing Good

As stated in the previous article, the consumption behavior of your customers can be positively influenced by a cleverly structured bonus system. However, if you want to make your loyalty program a mega success, you should definitely use this additional trick.

All you have to do is add a single reward to your existing program.

This gives your customers the opportunity to convert their points into a 5,-€ donation instead of a 5,-€ discount on their purchase.

Even if that doesn't sound like much at first, it has immense advantages.

1. Of course your customers think that's great and will definitely use this opportunity
2. Customers find the opportunity so great that they definitely tell their friends about it (free advertising)
3. Your loyalty program will be used even more intensively
4. It doesn't cost you more or less
5. You get free branding and an image enhancement
6. A Donation Campaign is an extremely good advertising hook (maybe you can even make it into the newspaper)
7. Most importantly, you are promoting a good cause

A Bonus Tip: Of course you can always change the recipient after 60 days, for example, and start a new campaign. In this way, you can drive permanently effective promotions according to the motto "Do good and talk about it" without throwing horrendous discounts around you.

Implementation

Of course, your campaign must be transparent. To do this, it is enough to post the number of premiums donated and the total amount on Facebook once a month.

This is not only a step towards transparency, but at the same time a great advertisement for your company.

If you want to start your campaign with the least possible effort, we recommend to start with one of the following 3 organizations:

• Red Cross
• Save the Children
• Doctors without Borders

These are not only known to all of your customers, independently certified and enjoy a high reputation, they all allow a quick and uncomplicated online donation.

Just get started right away and add a note of "Social Entrepreneurship" to your company.

For the Ambitious

Of course, this strategy is not limited to individual providers. If several companies join together with their campaigns, the effects of their fundraising campaigns can achieve a lot more.
Managing multiple programs, maybe even for your whole municipality, is child's play using a Free Partneraccount.